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Diet Using Low-Potassium Foods

Hyperkalemia is a medical condition characterized by excessive potassium levels in your blood. You need potassium to support muscular and cardiovascular cells, and your kidneys normally keep potassium levels regulated. Kidney disease, overconsumption of potassium, bodily trauma, Addison's disease, and some medications can increase potassium levels and can lead to hyperkalemia. Symptoms of hyperkalemia include heartbeat irregularities, exhaustion, tingling, numbness, and strange bodily sensations, respiratory difficulties, weakness, and paralysis. A low-potassium diet is often prescribed for individuals who have hyperkalemia.

  1. Healthy Potassium Levels

    • See a doctor to determine precisely what your potassium levels are. Potassium is an electrolyte and mineral that your body needs to help your kidneys, heart, and muscles function properly. The elderly are at a higher risk of developing hyperkalemia, because their kidneys regulate potassium levels less efficiently. Adults require an intake of 2000 mg of potassium to meet the daily recommended allowance of potassium.

    Detection and Treatment

    • Your doctor can detect hyperkalemia with a simple blood test. You may not exhibit signs that you have the condition. The condition is commonly treated with many different drug therapies, which are used in conjunction with a low-potassium diet. Diuretics may improve the way your body expels excessive potassium levels through urination, or you might be prescribed insulin, sodium bicarbonate, beta agonists, and binding resins, which help to regulate your potassium levels.

    Food Selections

    • In Therapeutic Nutrition: A Guide to Patient Education, Eileen Behan explains that many fruits, vegetables, and meats contain high potassium levels, and that it can be extremely difficult to get adequate nutrition while on a low-potassium diet. The author further asserts that you should be monitored by a physician when on a low-potassium diet to ensure that your nutritional needs are being met. Behan also identifies a number of low-potassium food sources.

      Vegetables low in potassium include alfalfa sprouts, bamboo shoots, green beans, wax beans, bean sprouts, cabbage, chard, peeled cucumbers, endives, escarole, lettuce, green peppers, sweet peppers, water chestnuts, and watercress. Fruits low in potassium include applesauce, blueberries, lemons, papaya, peach nectar, canned pears, and cranberry juice. Eileen Behan explains that colas, soda, lemonade, limeade, and mineral water are low-potassium beverage selections that you can consume on a low-potassium diet.

    Foods to Avoid

    • When you are on a low-potassium diet, you should avoid foods high in potassium. These foods include bananas, orange juice, citrus juice, avocados, cantaloupes, potatoes, lima beans, salmon, chicken, cod, tomatoes, and meats. Do not use any over-the-counter potassium supplements, and stay away from potassium acetate, bicarbonate, citrate, chloride, or gluconate supplements. Also, make sure your multivitamin does not have additional potassium.

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